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FirstEnergy & AEP Propose West Virginia Generation Sale at Five Times Going Rate for Coal Plants

4/5/2013

2 Comments

 
Here's just one more reason to oppose the current proposals to the PSC by Mon Power and APCo, who each wish to purchase coal plants from their parent company's unregulated subsidiaries.

FirstEnergy and AEP are charging West Virginia consumers FIVE TIMES the current market value of similar coal plants!

Just like real estate is evaluated by comparing it to comparable sales, FirstEnergy's and AEP's proposed sale prices can be compared to recent coal plant sales by other companies in a free market situation with a willing buyer and a willing seller.  However, the comparable sales were not intercompany transactions, which conjures up questions regarding self-dealing in the proposed West Virginia sales.

The average cost of three recent, similar coal plant sales is $162.2 per kW.

FirstEnergy's proposed $1.16B price tag for Harrison will cost $785.91 per kW.

AEP's proposed $1.4B price tag for Amos & Mitchell will cost $833.33 per kW.

Do West Virginians really need the capacity these plants will provide, especially at that price?  Or do FirstEnergy and AEP really need the boost to their balance sheets that these plant transfers will provide more than we need this capacity?  Have the companies proposed a reasonable price for these plants?

Let the West Virginia Public Service Commission know that you do not want to purchase FirstEnergy's and AEP's overpriced coal plants!  Submit your comments online now.  Be sure to include Case No. 12-1571 for FirstEnergy (Mon Power or Potomac Edison customers) or Case No.. 12-1655 for AEP (Appalachian or Wheeling Power customers).
2 Comments

News Flash!

4/4/2013

1 Comment

 
We were right.  About everything.

That is all.
1 Comment

FirstEnergy Pays $1.25M to Buy Union Advocacy for Harrison Plant Sale

4/2/2013

7 Comments

 
Just how important is the PSC's approval of FirstEnergy's plan to sell its Harrison coal plant from its competitive Ohio affiliate to its uncompetitive West Virginia affiliates Mon Power and Potomac Edison?

I dunno, but I think FirstEnergy just shelled out $1.25M to meet the demands of the UWUA 304 in exchange for a letter from UWUA to the WV PSC supporting the plant sale.

Must be pretty important then.  In that case, I suggest that all struggling industry or citizen groups (if you don't have a group, you can just make one up!) get aboard the shakedown train and sell their advocacy to FirstEnergy.  It's like growing your own money tree!!*

I'm not going to beat the union up about their deal with the devil.  They're just regular guys trying to make a living and FirstEnergy had been giving them a royal screwing.

What I do find absolutely hilarious though is how the threat of cozying up with StopPATH and Calhoun Powerline was used by the union to get its way.  Scaring FirstEnergy is our specialty.  Glad we could help ;-)

However the plant sale is STILL a bad idea.  I'm sure the union guys would much rather work at a plant that's financially subsidized by Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers than a plant owned by Allegheny Generation which is subject to the vagaries of competitive electric markets, and whose future is uncertain.  Can't blame them for wanting job security. 

But this plant sale will cost electric consumers over a billion dollars.  There are only 150 union guys but there are half a million Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers.  Be sure to let the WV PSC know that you do not support the plant sale.  Just click here. (submit comment on Formal Case and be sure to type in Case No. 12-1571-E-PC)

*(click here for FirstEnergy advocacy recruitment website to see how much your advocacy is worth to the company!)
7 Comments

Formal Challenge to PATH's 2011 Revenue Requirement Filed

4/1/2013

0 Comments

 
Keryn and Ali filed a third Formal Challenge to PATH's rates at FERC today.  The previous two Challenges, which were granted in part and set for settlement and hearing by FERC last fall, covered PATH's spending in 2009 and 2010.  The Challenge filed today covers PATH's 2011 expenses. 

Remember, the project wasn't put into abeyance until Feb. 28, 2011, and then PATH had the rest of the year to wind down its unneeded project and wallow in the financial and logistical mess it had made.

The total of this third challenge is $4.4M, and when added to the $5.7M set for hearing in the previous challenges, the amount challenged totals more than $10 million dollars.  What could you have done instead with that $10M?

The Challengers ask for the Commission to grant the Challenge and consolidate it with the existing Challenges, which were consolidated with PATH's abandonment.

We do hope you enjoyed your April Fool's day as much as we did...
0 Comments

FERC Stubbornly Clings to PJM Postage Stamp Rate Scheme

3/29/2013

0 Comments

 
FERC issued a whole bunch of interesting decisions at its meeting last week.  Unfortunately, I've been too busy over the last week writing FERCenese* to spend much time reading it.

Finally, here's your first FERCenese translation from last week about FERC's Order on Rehearing regarding postage stamp rates in PJM.

Not surprisingly, FERC reconfirmed it's original Order on Remand and brushed off all the arguments made by parties in their requests for rehearing.  The Commission continues to cling to its illogical presumption that “When a system is integrated, any system enhancements are presumed to benefit the entire system.”

Also not surprisingly, Commissioner LaFleur dissented (again).  However, joining her in dissenting this time around was the newest addition to the FERC stable, Commissioner Tony Clark.

Both dissenting Commissioners mentioned that FERC is reaching by assigning PJM "system wide benefits" to "Western PJM" entities like ComEd in exchange for bearing 14.7% of the costs.  These "system wide benefits" accrue from membership in PJM, and not from construction of the subject transmission projects.  Commissioner Clark also opined that FERC has fallen short of the 7th Circuit's directive in remanding the case back to FERC.

Although I usually encourage you all to read these filings yourself, this Order is a real deja vu snoozer that doesn't say anything new.  Everything you need to know is contained in the dissents.

Commissioner LaFleur's Dissent

Commissioner Clark's Dissent

The only thing different this time around is that a new cost allocation process for PJM transmission projects has been approved as part of PJM's Order No. 1000 compliance.  The new cost allocation method became effective February 1, 2013.  Therefore, this Order on Rehearing affects only a specific set of transmission projects approved between June 20, 2006 and February 1, 2013 (aka The Project Mountaineer Era).  These projects (TrAIL, Susquehanna Roseland and the dearly-departed, abandoned PATH and MAPP) will continue to be allocated and paid for by the postage stamp rate methodology that has been decided in this Order.

PJM's new cost allocation methodology will allocate 50% of the cost of transmission 345kV and over by postage stamp methods, with the remaining 50% allocated via a DFAX methodology, which more accurately assigns costs to those who cause them and to those who receive current benefits from the project.  (More on that in a future FERCenese translation).

So, while "Western PJM" will continue to pay an equal share of 500kV+ Project Mountaineer lines that are exclusive to the east coast, the current 345kV expansion going on in "Western PJM" (where they don't build 500kV lines) won't be allocated to "Eastern PJM" in the same proportions.  Sound fair to you?

FERC reasons that since this postage stamp business now applies only to a finite, historical set of projects that this decision will put the matter to rest.

Probably not.  The parties can now bump it back to the 7th Circuit.

And, curiously enough, the Illinois Attorney General intervened out of time in the PATH abandonment docket today.... because now Illinois is going to be stuck paying 14.7% of PATH's abandonment costs.  Coincidence?
*FERCenese:  [fur ken ees] noun 
Style of technical, legal prose utilized in filings and orders at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  To the average layperson, the filings appear to be written in a language other than the familiar English.  The Scott Thorsen Dictionary, 2013.
0 Comments

Consumers are realizing "they don’t need the power industry at all"

3/25/2013

0 Comments

 
Therefore, consumers also don't need $300B of new transmission to serve the dying centralized generation status quo either.  Transmission is a 50 - 70 year asset we're not going to need.

NRG seems to be one of only a few energy companies that doesn't have a death wish:

"NRG is the first operator of traditional, large-scale power plants to branch into running mini-generation systems that run a single building. The endeavor strikes at the core business of utilities that have earned money from making and delivering electricity ever since Thomas Edison flipped the switch on the first investor-owned power plant in Manhattan in 1882."

Read the complete article here.

The future of energy is coming and there's nothing our current energy dinosaurs can do to stop it.  Change or die.
0 Comments

Potomac Edison, Mon Power, and West Penn Power Billing and Meter Reading Practices - Incompetence or Corruption?

3/25/2013

6 Comments

 
It's been almost nine months since FirstEnergy subsidiary "Potomac Edison" wrote a nine page fairy tale to the Maryland Public Service Commission about its failure to read electric meters in Maryland, and it's been at least a year since customers began openly complaining about the company's meter reading and billing practices.  However, FirstEnergy subsidiaries Potomac Edison, Mon Power and West Penn Power still haven't gotten it right.

In fact, a new wave of unhappy customers is about to crash upon FirstEnergy's affiliate shores.

West Penn Power customers in Pennsylvania are unhappy with the company's failure to read meters in a timely fashion in accordance with state law.

"David Kline from FirstEnergy talked to the Waynesboro Borough Council on Wednesday about complaints about power bills having estimated meter readings several months in a row.

When Allegheny Energy merged with FirstEnergy two years ago, there were not many immediate changes, Kline said. However, computer systems and meter-reading policies started changing about a year ago, he said."


Right... those "policies" are just some of the "merger synergies" customers are receiving from the ill-advised Allegheny Energy/FirstEnergy merger in 2011.  The "policies" save this poorly managed company the operations cost of paying a meter reading staff a living wage, and as the company has stated many times, attempts to reduce its operating costs continue as it struggles to stay afloat.

Recently, a new scheme has emerged -- failure to bill Potomac Edison customers in a timely fashion.

"I, as I expect most of you, budget as closely as possible to the money coming in. It is the only way to function in this day of continuing rising costs and non-rising paychecks. When I saw that the bill had not come, I called the friendly customer service line and was told Potomac Edison was changing their billing cycle and I should receive my statement in about three weeks.

Not once did Potomac Edison inform me ahead of time that there was a change coming in billing cycles. Now I have received the statement which includes a month and about three-quarters of another month because the statements went out later than they used to. That has jumped my bill by a significant amount and we pay on the monthly budget plan!"


Without warning, customers are facing electric bills nearly double usual amounts, even customers who signed up for the company's "budget" plan which is supposed to average yearly usage and bill monthly so that your bill remains constant year round, no matter how much electricity you use.  Even though you are receiving two months worth of billing, Potomac Edison isn't giving you two months to pay.  Oh no, the entire balance is due right now.

The giggly "look at how incompetent we are" excuses from Potomac Edison, Mon Power and West Penn Power are wearing paper thin by now.  It's been a year since the problems started.  Instead of remedies, customers are being further injured by unjust and unreasonable billing practices.  Is it really corporate incompetence, or is it a sign of corruption?  You decide.


6 Comments

Grain Belt Express Clean Line "Code of Conduct" for Land Agents - Not Worth the Paper It's Printed On

3/20/2013

8 Comments

 
Holy plagiarism, Batman!  I ended up with a copy of Grain Belt Express Clean Line's "Code of Conduct" for Right-of-Way Agents and Subcontractors in my email today.

This silly document is nothing but window dressing masquerading as "proof" that Clean Line's land sharks are following some sort of moral compass.  This document does nothing to stop land shark abuse of landowners.  Who's supposed to enforce it?  Nobody!  What are the penalties or legal remedies for violation?  There aren't any!  It's your word against theirs.

This document has an interesting history.  Notice how it's written to supposedly prohibit certain behaviors?  Does the specificity of certain tactics seem a bit odd to you?  That's because each one of these land agent no-nos was a tactic actually perpetrated on landowners in Pennsylvania by land agents for TrAILCo.  This "Code of Conduct" came into existence through a court battle fought by the Pennsylvania Office of the Consumer Advocate, who is tasked with representing the interests of consumers, who had been victim to these very same land agent tactics.  In its original form, it was enforceable by the Pennsylvania authorities.  In its current incarnation, it's not worth the paper it's printed on.  It's mere suggestion that is more for the landowner's benefit as an imaginary security blanket than it is a set of rules for Clean Line's land sharks.

The "Code" was re-used by TrAILCo's parent company for their subsequent PATH project.  Turned out that the West Virginia PSC wasn't interested in enforcing it, therefore, the document was worthless.  PATH land sharks violated it constantly, according to affected landowners.

And now Clean Line has plagiarized this document from PATH, thinking it will fool a whole new crop of rubes in the midwest.  Not.  It's even complete with the same PATH-created typos... what a bunch of idiots you are, Clean Line!!

So, what's your best defense?  Refuse to speak or interact with Clean Line land sharks without the assistance of your attorney and insist that all conversations be recorded.  You'll still have to pursue any "violations" through civil court, but I have a feeling the land sharks won't be so willing to star in your own personal video production and will avoid you and your camera or tape recorder like a.... plague of bolt weevils, perhaps?
8 Comments

FirstEnergy Getting Desperate - Tries to Kill Energy Efficiency in Ohio

3/19/2013

0 Comments

 
FirstEnergy is up to no good in the state of Ohio, where the company is telling large businesses that they will save money on their electric bills if they sign FirstEnergy's pre-written form letter asking legislators to kill Ohio's energy efficiency standards.

Why?  Perhaps this picture from the folks at Ohio Beyond Coal explains things:
Scary, huh?  Evil personified up there is just begging for you to draw some horns and a tail on him to complete the picture.

"The Akron power company tried but failed to get the standards scuttled or frozen just before Christmas by asking legislators to slip an amendment into unrelated legislation. But lawmakers scattered when the tactic was publicly revealed.

This time, FirstEnergy is sending a form letter written by its lobbyists to some of its larger commercial and industrial customers, asking them to fill in their company's name and send it by Friday to the Ohio Senate, which is trying to decide whether to tinker with the efficiency rules.

The company defended its tactic to gin up support for its position.

"FirstEnergy remains concerned that meeting the state's energy efficiency goals will continue to place burdensome costs on our customers, particularly Ohio businesses," the company said in a prepared statement."


Why does FirstEnergy want to do away with energy efficiency programs in Ohio?  It's hurting their bottom line and working as intended to save consumers money.  More money in consumer pockets through energy efficiency, less money in FirstEnergy's pocket.  Investments in energy efficiency cost much less than investments in new power plants.  The cheapest resource is the one you never have to build.

"FirstEnergy CEO Anthony Alexander [aka "Satan"] has said in public meetings that the rules have interfered with normal market growth, already made tough by the recession."

Right... and FirstEnergy thinks its customers are dumb enough to hurt their own bottom line by signing form letters opposing energy efficiency programs.  Good luck with that, FirstEnergy, your arrogance is stunning.  Some things just can't be fixed by lying to your customers, legislators, regulators and the media.
0 Comments

Cut the Fat -- Give Private Utilities the Boot

3/16/2013

0 Comments

 
The City of Boulder, Colorado has been engaged in battle with private, investor-owned utility Xcel for the past several years.  In 2011, the City passed a referendum to form its own municipal electric utility and give utility giant Xcel the boot.  Since then, the City has been negotiating with Xcel to give the utility one last chance to shape up or get kicked out.

A recent article in the New York Times discusses the pros and cons of municipal utilities.

"Roughly 70 percent of the nation’s homes are powered through private, investor-owned utilities, which are allowed to earn a set profit on their investments, normally through the rates they charge customers. But government-owned utilities, most of them formed 50 to 100 years ago, are nonprofit entities that do not answer to shareholders. They have access to tax-exempt financing for their projects, they do not pay federal income tax and they tend to pay their executives salaries that are on par with government levels, rather than higher corporate rates.

That financial structure can help municipal utilities supply cheaper electricity. According to data from the federal Energy Information Administration, municipal utilities over all offer cheaper residential electricity than private ones — not including electric cooperatives, federal utilities or power marketers — a difference that holds true in 32 of the 48 states where both exist. In addition, they can plow more of their revenue back into maintenance and prevention, which can result in more reliable service and faster restorations after power failures."


Not only have municipal utilities proven themselves more reliable during recent extreme weather events, they're also cheaper.  While the private utility mega-corporations have touted their "economies of scale" as more cost effective, that's no longer true.  With increasing pressure to turn a profit and pay shareholder dividends every quarter, these corporations are increasingly looking for ways to increase profits and cut expenses.  Reliability and service suffers first, instead of cutting exorbitant executive salaries, lobbying budgets, and "corporate stewardship" waste, such as buying naming rights to football stadiums and other ridiculous expenditures.  The fundamental problem is that shareholders don't care where the profits come from, as long as they show up every quarter.  Company executives are loathe to dip into their ever-increasing perks, so the customers are the ones who take a hit for the team.

When the corporate baggage of multi-million dollar salaries and frivolous executive waste are taken out of the picture, a municipal utility may more than make up for any "economies of scale."  Check it out in your local area!
0 Comments
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    About the Author

    Keryn Newman blogs here at StopPATH WV about energy issues, transmission policy, misguided regulation, our greedy energy companies and their corporate spin.
    In 2008, AEP & Allegheny Energy's PATH joint venture used their transmission line routing etch-a-sketch to draw a 765kV line across the street from her house. Oooops! And the rest is history.

    About
    StopPATH Blog

    StopPATH Blog began as a forum for information and opinion about the PATH transmission project.  The PATH project was abandoned in 2012, however, this blog was not.

    StopPATH Blog continues to bring you energy policy news and opinion from a consumer's point of view.  If it's sometimes snarky and oftentimes irreverent, just remember that the truth isn't pretty.  People come here because they want the truth, instead of the usual dreadful lies this industry continues to tell itself.  If you keep reading, I'll keep writing.


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